Free Murder on Black Friday by P.B. RYAN Page B

serene way of hers, “when I first joined his household twelve years ago. He’d sent for me because he needed someone—someone he could truly trust and depend upon—to act as his private secretary and housekeeper. This necklace was his way of thanking me for taking on those responsibilities.”
    Nell wondered how Munro’s business associates felt about dealing with a female secretary, but she knew better than to voice the thought.
    “It’s actually a sort of locket.” Catherine turned the pendant over, revealing an oval-shaped, glass-covered miniature painting.
    Nell leaned forward, squinting to make out the image in the semidarkness. It was a portrait of a man, brown-haired, mustachioed, and wolfishly handsome. “Is that...?”
    “Philip.” Looking down at the locket, Catherine rubbed her thumb over the glass.
    “So,” Nell said, “you...commissioned Mr. Munro’s portrait to fit the—“
    “Oh, no, it was already in there when he gave it to me.” Smiling wistfully, Catherine turned the pendant back around, patted it, and said, “I mean to wear this every day until I depart this world myself, and then I mean to be buried with it.” 
    Nell and Will both sat back in their chairs, staring at the pendant. When the silence started to become awkward, Will said, “Er, Miss Munro, would you mind telling us how long Mr. Munro had been counseling Mr. Bassett on business matters?”
    “A few months. Let’s see, it would been...ah, yes. Four months—since May, because that was when he first called on Mr. Bassett to offer his advice, and it was shortly afterward that he and Miss Bassett...well...” She let out a long, disconsolate sigh.
    Nell and Will both sat forward.
    Still absently fondling the pendant, Catherine said, “I must admit, I was appalled last week, when he told me he’d actually gone and proposed to her. I told him he should give it some more time, he’d only known her four months, but he didn’t want to hear it. Poor Philip. So extraordinary in so many ways, but when it came to females—especially golden little things like Rebecca Bassett—he was...” She shook her head, frowning grimly at the table. “As foolish as any man.”
    Nell said, “Your brother and Becky Bassett were engaged?”
    Looking up, she said, “Well, it wasn’t finalized yet, but... I assumed you knew. She didn’t mention it when you were talking to her this morning?”
    “No,” Nell said. Nor had Miriam or Dr. Tanner, although it may have been what was on Tanner’s mind when he said, regarding Miriam’s determination to excise the memory of Philip Munro from their lives, “It seemed to trouble her that he had
anything
to do with the family, but especially that he was...” That he was engaged to Becky—that was undoubtedly what Tanner had started to say before he cut himself off.
    Nell looked at Will, who gave her a wry shrug.
    “Philip told me they couldn’t make it official until they secured her father’s approval,” Catherine said. “But I just assumed Rebecca or the sister would have told you about it this morning, since, well...what would be the point of keeping it under wraps now? Philip is...he’s gone.” Her fist tightened around the pendant. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing can come of it now.”
    More bewildered than ever, Nell said, “Had they
sought
Mr. Bassett’s approval?”
    “Oh, yes, Philip was a gentleman—he did the proper thing. He asked Mr. Bassett for his permission, only to be summarily rebuffed.”
    “Really?” Nell had a hard time picturing docile old Noah Bassett having the backbone to refuse anything to a man like Philip Munro.
    “I can’t imagine why that should surprise you,” Catherine said, a little frostily. “Men like Mr. Bassett liked to use my brother for his business acumen—and Philip, being of a generous nature, always obliged—but they never really accepted him as one of them. That was why he convinced Rebecca to keep their courtship a secret.